A source familiar with the matter told Benzinga that the Chinese firm could launch a takeover bid as early as next week by coming in with a first offer of $15.00 [£8.26] per share before a final deal for $18.00 [£9.91] per share.

Neither company was prepared to provide a comment on the deal and since Lenovo’s last attempt to takeover the firm back in October 2013, BlackBerry experienced something of a resurgence under latest CEO John Chen.

This has culminated in the release of its new BlackBerry Passport smartphone that sees the return of the physical QWERTY keyboard that helped to cement its name among enterprise customers over the past decade.

It has also seen a measure of success after relaunching its BBM instant messaging feature that arrived on iOS and Android for the first time in late 2013 and Chen has attempted to monetise BBM by adding sponsored content inside Channels.

The last time Lenovo tried to bring BlackBerry on board it was blocked by the Canadian government over national security concerns due to the fact BlackBerry’s network is closely tied to Canada’s infrastructure.

It isn’t without substance given that a number of Western countries have, in the past, decided against using Lenovo machines at a government level including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

For this reason alone it would seem unlikely that Lenovo will get its wish to buy up BlackBerry anytime soon and it will have to be content with Motorola Mobility until a semblance of trust is attached to its name – in the West at least.